PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT TEACHING ENGLISH TO PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

International Journal of Instruction January 2012 ● Vol.5, No.1 e-ISSN: 1308-1470 ● www.e-iji.net p-ISSN: 1694-609X PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT TEACHING ENGLISH TO PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN "It is what teachers think, what teachers believe and what teachers do at the level of the classroom that ultimately shapes the kind of learning that young people get." Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan (Educational theorists) Mahesh B. Shinde Ph.D Scholar, Department of English, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, India maheshshinde111@gmail.com Tripti K. Karekatti Ph.D, Department of English, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India This paper is a part of an ongoing doctoral research on ‘Teacher Talk in ESL Classrooms’. The idea for this was gained through the hypothesis that teachers’ beliefs about English teaching may also mould their talk. The researcher intends here to analyse and comment on teachers’ English teaching beliefs. It is generally accepted that teaching is greatly affected by the belief systems of its practitioners- teachers. Teachers’ beliefs influence their consciousness, teaching attitude, teaching methods and teaching policies, and finally, learners’ development. Horwitz (1987) also states rightly that the formation of teachers’ educational beliefs in language teaching/ learning process will influence, though indirectly, on forming effective teaching methods and will bring about the improvement of learners’ language learning abilities. In Indian context, there is dearth of research evaluating teachers’ beliefs about English teaching. This study explores teachers’ beliefs regarding teaching English to children and tries to explore whether medium of instruction makes any difference in their beliefs. It also intends to determine what similar and different beliefs might be held by in-service teachers from two different mediums. A total of 100 pre-service teachers are the subjects of this study. In order to recognize these teachers’ specific beliefs in a more systematic way, a research instrument, The Questionnaire of Primary School Pre-service English Teachers’ Teaching Beliefs was developed. Almost all of these pre- service teachers expected to have training regarding how to make their talk effective and relevant in classrooms. Key Words: teacher beliefs, teacher talk, primary school, teacher education, teacher training 70 Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching English … International Journal of Instruction, January 2012 ● Vol.5, No.1 INTRODUCTION During the past thirty years or so, research has made significant contributions to the exploration of teachers’ beliefs, and the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practices, which has produced important findings for both pre- service and in-service teacher education. Tatto (1998) argues that we have a very little empirical evidence showing the influence of teacher education on teachers’ values and beliefs. So, it may commonly be accepted that teacher education can have little influence on altering teachers’ beliefs. Therefore, if trainees hold beliefs about language learning which might negatively affect their future students’ learning, it is very significant for the teacher educators to work on these beliefs and change them. If learners’ beliefs about language learning are considered important, the beliefs of their teachers should also be considered as equally important. The reason is that research has shown that, through their conscious or unconscious participation, individual teachers have the power to create or break the trends. They shape the curriculum according to their own beliefs, teach their personal values through the implicit curriculum, and operate their classrooms in accordance with their own particular definitions of teaching and learning. Teachers are unaware that they are doing this. They are also unable to put into words the beliefs, values, and definitions that form the base of their teaching. While some people believe that learning English (or any other Foreign Language) is an easy task and it can be learnt within short period of just three months, the others believe that acquiring another language is a special “gift” possessed by only a few people. Moreover, there has been controversy among people on the appropriate age to begin learning a new language; some believe younger the learner, better the results; while others say adults can learn any new language faster than the younger learners. There are still more disagreements on the influence of mother tongue on learning a foreign language, effectiveness of different teaching methodologies, and so on (e.g. Atkinson, 1993; Deller, 2003). If beliefs about foreign language learning can be so widespread in one culture, then it must be considered that learners bring these beliefs with them into the classroom. In case of English teachers, they are also learners of teaching English and, therefore, no exceptions for such beliefs which formulate their way of teaching. English has almost achieved the status of global language. Educational policies in many countries are intensifying teaching of English as an essential part of the school curriculum to meet the challenges of globalization and internationalization. English is taught as a Foreign Language (FL) or Second Language (SL) in many countries, including India. In India it has got the status Shinde & Karekatti 71 International Journal of Instruction, January 2012 ● Vol.5, No.1 of second language. Indeed, Primary education is the foundation on which the development of every citizen and the nation as a whole built on. In recent past, India has made a huge progress in terms of increasing primary education enrolment, retention, regular attendance rate and expanding literacy to approximately two thirds of the population. India’s improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to the economic development of India. At the same time, the quality of elementary education in India has also been a major concern. Therefore, the Indian government has laid emphasis on primary education up to the age of fourteen years. Education has also been made free for children from six to sixteen years of age under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009. Around 80% of all recognized schools at the Elementary Stage are government run or supported, making it the largest provider of education in the Country. However, due to shortage of resources and lack of political will, this system suffers from massive gaps including high pupil teacher ratios, shortage of infrastructure and poor level of teacher training. The current scheme for Universalization of Elementary education after, The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP-1994) is the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan which is one of the largest education initiatives in the world. Many states in India have included English in school curriculum and have started English from as early as first grade. In Maharashtra, from where the researcher has collected the data for present study, English is being taught as a first language in some English medium schools and as a second language in many Marathi medium schools. English has been stared from first standard in Marathi medium schools also from June 2000. But unfortunately, even after a decade, the desired goals have not been achieved to the full extent. Apart from many other reasons, like social and family background of the students, size of classrooms, and availability of teaching aids, the basic reason is unavailability of competent and well trained teachers. Primary student teachers (D.Ed. (Diploma in Education) students) are also provided with inadequate exposure to face this challenge of teaching English to children more effectively. Teacher beliefs are important considerations in conducting teacher education designed to help pre-service and in-service teachers develop their thinking and practices. Therefore, the present research simply tries to determine these pre-service teachers’ beliefs regarding teaching English to children and if they are consistent with accepted learning principles or teaching approaches. 72 Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching English … International Journal of Instruction, January 2012 ● Vol.5, No.1 The two research questions to be addressed in this study are: 1. What are the core beliefs of pre-service English teachers about the teaching and learning in primary school? Are these beliefs consistent with accepted learning principles or teaching approaches? 2. Does the medium of instruction make any difference in teachers’ beliefs? THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ‘Belief’ is a common concept in various research literatures in sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy and many other disciplines. Despite the diversity in using this term, the prior research and reviews on teacher beliefs and on teacher knowledge and beliefs contribute to an agreement on some characteristics of teacher beliefs (Fang, 1996; Kagan, 1992; Nespor, 1987; Pajares, 1992; Woolfolk Hoy, Davis, & Pape, 2006). Ample research (e.g. Nespor, 1987; Pajares, 1992) suggests that both the professional development of teachers and their classroom practices are influenced by educational beliefs. It was, however, not until the 1970s that research on teaching emphasized the significance of teachers’ beliefs. From the mid 1970s to early 1980s, studies typically focused on teachers’ decision- making, concerning how teachers manage their classrooms, organize activities, allocate time, plan lessons, judge general student understandings and so on. Since the 1990s, research has focused on the exploration of the knowledge and beliefs that lay behind the practice of teaching. Some studies (e.g. Johnson, 1994; Numrich, 1996) revealed how pre-service ESL teachers’ beliefs are based on prior experience and how such experience relates to classroom practice. Johnson (1994) found that pre-service teachers’ instructional decisions during a class were based on images of teachers, materials, activities and classroom organization generated by their own L2 learning experience. Numrich (1996) also found that teachers decided to promote or to avoid specific instructional strategies on the basis of their positive or negative experiences of these respective strategies as learners. Some other researchers on teacher education and development have put forth how teachers’ beliefs play a critical role in affecting their teaching and the kinds of thinking and decision making that underlie their classroom practices (Moon, 2000; Richards, 1998; Richards & Lockhart, 1996; Smith, 1996; Trappes-Lomax & McGrath, 1999). Furthermore, according to some others, these beliefs are stable sources of teachers’ reference, are built up over time, and are related to teachers’ theories of language, the nature of language teaching practices, roles Shinde & Karekatti 73 International Journal of Instruction, January 2012 ● Vol.5, No.1 of themselves as teachers, and relationships with their students (Johnson, 1992; Richards, 1998). Based on research conducted on the nature and effects of beliefs, White (1999) made the following claims: (1) beliefs have an adaptive function to help individuals define and understand the world and themselves, and (2) beliefs are instrumental in defining tasks and behaviors. Thus, teachers’ belief systems, including their attitudes, values, expectations, theories, and assumptions about teaching and learning, are considered a primary source of teachers’ classroom practices. These beliefs are usually guided by a number of factors: their own experience as learners in classrooms, prior teaching experience, classroom observations they were exposed to, and their previous training courses at school (Richards, 1998). Teachers’ beliefs have already been classified into various sets of categories by some researchers (Johnson, 1992; William & Burden, 1997). William and Burden (1997) divided their discussion of teachers’ beliefs into three areas: (1) about language learning, (2) about learners, and (3) about themselves as language teachers. Furthermore, a number of studies have attempted to investigate the beliefs of ESL teachers through questionnaires or inventories (Hsieh & Chang, 2002; Johnson, 1992; Kern, 1995; Liao & Chiang, 2003; Richards, Tung, & Ng, 1992; Yang, 2000). Yang (2000) discussed prospective teachers’ beliefs in four areas: (1) general beliefs about child development, (2) general beliefs about language learning, (3) specific beliefs about teaching English to children, and (4) self-efficacy and expectations. It may be accepted here that in order to develop more effective teaching approaches, English teachers’ beliefs need to be understood well. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the teaching beliefs held by pre- service primary school English teachers. Moreover, because teachers may derive beliefs from the nature of teacher training programs, this study also attempts to compare Marathi medium (henceforth MM) and English medium (henceforth EM) pre-service teachers’ conceptions of English teaching to determine if there exist any similarities and/or differences that result from their medium of instruction. METHOD Sampling A total of 100 pre-service Marathi and English medium D.Ed. (Diploma in Education) students are the subjects of this study. Following table provides more details about the subjects. 74 Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching English … International Journal of Instruction, January 2012 ● Vol.5, No.1 Medium of Instruction Teachers Marathi Medium English Medium Total Pre-service (D.Ed.) 50 (22-m, 28-f) 50 (16-m, 34-f) 100 (38-m, 62-f ) *(m- male, f- female) These teacher students have passed their 10+2 education from different branches (Arts/Commerce/Science) and now are doing D.Ed. (Diploma in Education) course which runs for two years. English is considered as third language in Marathi medium D.Ed. colleges and is taught in the second year whereas in the English medium D. Ed. colleges, it is considered the first language and is taught in the first year. Marathi is the mother tongue of the majority of them. The Content Validation of the Research Instrument In order to recognize these teachers’ specific beliefs in a more systematic way, a research instrument, The Questionnaire of Primary School Pre-service English Teachers’ Teaching Beliefs, (see Appendix) was developed by the researcher. The researcher drew on a number of related questionnaires (Horwitz, 1987; Hsieh & Chang, 2002; Oxford, 1990; Yang, 2000) to formulate items for the current questionnaire. Only few items related to teacher talk features were added. The questionnaire consisted of 48 discrete questions divided into four categories: 1) The nature of children’s English development (items1, 2, 3, 6, 16, 17, 19, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 39, 40, 41); 2) Teaching methods and techniques (items 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 20, 21, 22, 23, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 42, 43, 44, 46); 3) Beliefs about teacher talk (4, 5, 11, 15, 18, 25, 35, 47, 38,) and 4) Self-efficacy as an English teacher (items 12, 13, 24, 37, 45, 48). Procedure The subjects were informed about the present study. All of them agreed to participate with interest. Also, the questionnaire required the participants to supply their names. This is because the researchers would like to study the same teachers (or maximum of them) when they will complete the degree and join Shinde & Karekatti 75 International Journal of Instruction, January 2012 ● Vol.5, No.1 any school. We hope that it would help us to confirm their pre-service and in- service beliefs and see if there are any differences. Five-point Likert scale was used and participants were asked to gauge their beliefs by indicating the extent to which they agreed with each statement using (1) SD = strongly disagree, (2) D = disagree, (3) N = neither agree nor disagree, (4) A = agree, or (5) SA = strongly agree. The student teachers were requested not to consult their classmate/colleagues while working with the questionnaire in order to insure that the answers reflected each teachers own beliefs and opinions about teaching English to children. Also, we had an informal discussion with four teacher educators (two from each medium school). RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 1. Beliefs about children English development Almost fourteen items from the questionnaire were devoted to know about the way children develop their English. Majority of student teachers from both mediums (MM-82%, EM-80%) believed that every child can learn English well (item 1) and children have different learning styles (item 6). Moreover, most of them (MM-88%, EM-90%) agreed or strongly agreed that earlier English is taught to children, the better the results (items 2 and 27). Further, they (MM- 88%, EM- 86%) supported the statements that children have individual differences in their cognitive development (item 29) and that it is important for them to comprehend the lesson content. Many of them (MM-90%, EM-80%) thought that children acquire English easily when they are doing activities, interacting with other people and having regular practice (items 16, 28, 30). Same number of student teachers from both mediums (86%) agreed or strongly agreed with the statements that children learn English faster than adults (item 26) do and it is important for primary school children to read and write in English (item 40). Up to here, these student teachers’ beliefs about children’s English development appear to be compatible with the literature on children’s second language learning and development (Brown, 2000; Cook, 1996; Moon, 2000; Vale & Feunteun, 2003). They believe that starting English as early as possible helps children to develop English in more systematic way in future. They also believe that children are faster than adults in learning English and they can learn English well with their own style. However, current research (e.g., Snow and Hoefnagel-Höhle, 1978; Marinova-Todd, 2000; Moyer, 2004 ) on age in SLA/SLL argues that evidence of children outperforming adults in second language acquisition is misleading because the manner of learning instead of age may be the main factor in determining successful acquisition. Many 76 Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching English … International Journal of Instruction, January 2012 ● Vol.5, No.1 researchers (e.g., Krashen, Long, and Scarcella, 1979) have proved that adolescents and adults are faster in SLA than the younger learners. For example, in their review of the research that has addressed the age issue, Krashen, Long, and Scarcella (1979) concluded that a) adults are superior to children in rate of acquisition b) older children learn more rapidly than younger children While trying to know the sources for such beliefs of these pre-service teachers it is found that D.Ed English syllabus contains topics like Methods of Teaching, Language Skills, Teaching of Literature in Primary Classes, Grammar, Planning and Evaluation, etc. More focus is on ‘how to teach better’ and very less weightage is given for discussion on theoretical aspects. Also, in discussion with four teacher educators it is found that when teaching these D.Ed students the information about ‘younger the better’, how learning English early helps than learning it later, how younger learners are adaptive to various rhymes and poems, etc. is given. But seldom are they told about children being faster than adults. It